The Heart of the Matter 2
by ninewood
Summary: Emmett Carver has his surgery then receives a message from Ellie.


**_A/N: I had done a story for Alec Hardy with this title so it was only fair to do one for Emmett Carver. :) Contains a spoiler so do not read unless you have seen the last episode._**

_San Francisco, California_

Julianne Carver walked down the hallway as she held the brown fur teddy bear wearing surgeon's clothes in her arms and walked to the nurses' station. The nurse smiled sweetly at her as Julianne made a small cough and sighed.

"I'm here to see Emmett Carver. He's my dad," she said and the nurse looked at the computer screen.

"He's in 412," the nurse said and Julianne nodded her head. Walking down the hallway, Julianne thought about how frightened she was when she found out about her father's heart condition. He didn't seem sick, but some people who had heart conditions never do. She kicked herself in her mind for leaving Gracepoint without talking to him, but she hated being pushed aside. He didn't mean to do it, but he tended to get too involved when the case dealt with someone else's kid. Now she might lose him and having her last memory of her father being her being a brat made her stomach hurt.

"Hey," a familiar voice said as she stopped then backed up. She had walked right by his room as Emmett smiled at her and wiggled two fingers for her to come in. He was in a single room and the nurse had left the door open. He looked tired, but happy and she tried not to laugh at the little hearts on his hospital gown. "Yeah, I know, I look stupid."

"No, you look…cute," Julianne said as she walked closer and held the teddy bear in her arms. He had a pulse monitor clip on the index finger of his left hand and the wires connected to the heart monitor stuck out of the top of the hospital gown. The needle to the intravenous drip was taped to the back of his right hand and a soft beeping sound came from the heart monitor.

"Is that for me?" he asked, looking at the teddy bear.

"Yeah" she said as she walked closer and handed him the teddy bear. He saw the look in her eyes when he sighed and held the teddy bear to his chest.

"Come on," he said as she looked at the bed and memories of crawling into bed with him when she was smaller filled her head. She always took comfort in snuggling with him when she was upset, but she didn't want to disconnect anything and sighed. He nodded his head when she carefully climbed on the bed and he slid his arm around her. She placed her head against his right shoulder as he held her and she placed her arm around his waist.

"So when's the surgery?"

"It's tomorrow at two thirty in the afternoon," he sighed and placed the teddy bear against the bedrail.

"Are you scared?"

"I'm terrified," he said with wide eyes and she giggled. "Hey, they're going to cut my chest open."

"I should have never said that," she teased and he smiled. "Did they…did they have to shave anything?"

"Yeah, the nurse shaved my chest hair off. That is going to itch like crazy when it grows back," he said while peeking under the top of the hospital gown and she giggled. "Have you gone to the prom yet?"

"I'm not sure if I'm going."

"I thought Jason was going to take you."

"He is, but I can't go with you…," she said and he held his hand up.

"No, you are going," he said with a blank look on his face and she softly giggled, rolling her eyes. "What time did your mother say you are supposed to be home?"

"She said twelve thirty," she said and he gave her a stern look.

"You will be home by twelve," he half growled and she nodded her head. "What does the gown look like?"

"It's full length and blue."

"Of course it's blue," he teased and she gently poked his side.

"It has this sparkly silver belt and I found shoes to match."

"Is it low cut?"

"No."

"Good."

"It's strapless," she said when the alarm on the heart monitor went off and she got off the bed. "Dad, you ok?"

The nurse ran into the room as Emmett breathed hard and fast through his nose and Julianne started panicking.

"What happened?" the nurse asked as she checked the heart monitor and Julianne backed up.

"We were just talking then that thing went off," Julianne said while the nurse examined Emmett and he rolled his eyes as he smiled.

"She just told me she was going to wear a strapless dress to the prom," he said and the nurse looked at Julianne.

"I think you better leave," the nurse said.

"No, she's staying,"

"You need rest and quiet," the nurse said and he glared at her.

"She's staying," he said and the nurse sighed and nodded her head. They watched her leave the room when he looked at Julianna and she wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. "Hey, come here."

"No," Julianne said and he held his arms out. Sighing, she walked back to the bed then crawled back on the mattress and snuggled next to him. Wrapping his arms around her, he hugged her and she placed her head on his shoulder. "I'm sorry."

"I think my heart would have done that even if I wasn't sick," he said with a small smile and she gently poked his chest with her finger. "Is it really strapless?"

"No, it has those plastic spaghetti straps."

"Ok," he said as they went quiet and she rubbed her finger over the pulse monitor clip.

"I know the truth," she finally said and he frowned, giving her a confused look.

"What are you talking about?"

"I don't want to tell you because the alarm will go off again," she said softly and he thought for a few seconds. A surprised look appeared on his face when he sighed and she looked up at him.

"When did you figure it out?"

"It was a few days after the trial. I was so mad at you then I realized that you couldn't have gone to the hotel in your car. You had it at the dealer's, getting new breaks. Then I remembered seeing Mom coming out at the movies with this guy. I remember him coming to the house and how "friendly" he was with Mom. I didn't want to believe it so I didn't tell you," she said and carefully placed her head against his chest. His heart thumped in her ear as she placed her hand on his shoulder and could hear an odd beat now and then.

"You are too damn smart," he sighed then kissed the top of her head and she looked up at him. "Now I am the one who's sorry. I should have told you what really happened."

"Why didn't you?"

"I knew I didn't have long and didn't want you angry with both of us. You and Mom are really close and I didn't want to ruin that closeness."

"We're close."

"I know, but not like you are with her. It's selfish, but I couldn't destroy that."

"You're a jerk," she teased and he softly laughed.

"You still love me, right?"

'Yeah," she said as they went silent and the soft beeping sound filled the room.

_Five days later – ICU Room Five_

"He's awake," the nurse said as Julianne walked in the room and looked at her father. He was connected to machines, a pulse monitor clip was connected to his left index finger, the needle to the intravenous drip was taped to the back of his right hand and the oxygen prongs were sticking up his nose. He looked weak and tired as he tried to smile and his eyes were half open.

"Where is my bear?" he asked in a weak and tired voice and she smiled, taking his left hand and folding their fingers together.

"He's in your room, waiting for you," she teased and he nodded his head. "How are you feeling?"

"I'm tired, my chest hurts and I have to pee," he sighed and she pushed the call button. The nurse came in the room as she walked to the bed and looked at them.

"What's wrong?" the nurse asked.

"My father needs to pee," Julianne said and the nurse nodded her head, leaving the room. Emmett looked at Julianne when she carefully sat on the edge of the bed and looked at the heart monitor. She watched the lines moving for a few minutes then looked at him and he arched his eyebrows up.

"You look like you've been crying," he finally said.

"I have. Mom told me I was being silly, crying over you."

"Yeah, well…," he sighed and she kissed his knuckles. The nurse came back in the room as Julianne got up and walked to the window. She looked out at the parking lot then turned and saw the nurse leaving the room. Walking back to the bed, Julianne sat down and took his hand. "I'm guessing your mother brought you."

"Yeah, she's at the hotel. She didn't want to come."

"I would be surprised if she did," he said and looked at the doorway.

"Have you thought about what you're going to do now that you're not a cop?"

"Nope," he sighed then pressed his lips together.

"You could always teach at the police academy."

"Yeah, I could do that."

"Are you coming home?"

"Only if you want me to," he said, looking at her with sad eyes.

"We could always stay here," she said and he gave her a puzzled look.

"What's this "we" stuff?"

"Well, someone has to look after you. I looked in the papers and there are some reasonable apartments. I could go look and…"

"Hold on. You want to stay with me?" he asked with a puzzled look then sighed. "See, this is why I didn't want to tell you."

"No, you see, this is why I came to see you in the first place. I mean besides you calling and begging me to video chat. Things haven't been that great at home. She's always on my case and tells me not to have anything to do with you. I wasn't the one who erased your messages. I caught her with my phone and told her to…," she said then looked at the heart monitor and stopped talking.

"Why did you stop?"

"Your heartrate's going up. I don't want the nurse to come in like last time," she said and he wrapped their fingers together.

"You really want to live this grumpy, set in his ways old man?" he asked with a smile and she laughed.

"Yeah," she said and he kissed the back of her hand.

"Go see if you can find a paper," he said as she got up, kissed his cheek and left the room. Sighing, he looked at the heart monitor while the lines moved up and down and titled his head to one side.

_Weeks later – Rosemont_

"There," Julianne said as she wiped her father's lips and placed the plastic bowl on the small plastic tray. Emmett was surprised that his ex-wife agreed to let Julianne stay with him and had gone with her to look at apartments. They found a nice apartment not too far from the police academy and the building had an elevator. They were going to move in after graduation and her mother had already placed the house on the market.

"I could have fed myself," he said and she smiled, kissing his cheek. He did admit he felt better than he had in a long time and his cardiologist said he was healing nicely.

"Someone is being his normal, grumpy self today," she teased and he reached over and held the teddy bear against his chest.

"No, I'm not," he said with a pout and she rolled her eyes.

"Then you don't want to play the new game I downloaded on your phone," she said as she held his smart phone in her hand and his eyes widened. She had gotten him hooked on some games and laughed that he didn't know how to download them.

"Hand it over," he said then saw the look in her eyes. "Please."

"Ok," she said then handed him the smart phone and stood up. "I'll be up to check on you in a bit."

"Yeah," he said as he looked at the screen and she picked up the small plastic tray, rolled her eyes and left the room. After saving the game, he pushed the button when he brought up his voice mail log and scrolled down the list. Most of the calls were from friends and co-workers when he saw** ELLIE** and the date was two days after he had found the empty room she had in the apartment building they were hiding her and her sons. He hadn't told their chief what he had figured out and everyone thought she had just taken the boys and left town. Sighing, he pushed the button and placed his head against the pillow.

"Hello, Emmett. I know. I shouldn't call you that, but I can't call you "Sir", now can I? I don't even know if you're still alive. You were when I last saw you, but that could change, right? Anyway, I also know you figured out what happened to Danny. I'm so sorry, but I couldn't let you take Tom. It was bad enough to learn what a monster Joe was. I just couldn't do it. He's my baby. If you want to know what happened, he had followed Joe to the cabin and found out what he and Danny were doing. He was so angry with Joe and was swinging an oar at him when he hit Danny. It was an accident, but it doesn't excuse what he did and what Joe was doing. I know I should have told you once I found out. But, like I said, I didn't want to lose him. The heart of the matter is, he is my son and I promised to protect him and Dylan. Please, if you really are my friend, don't say or do anything."

A low click came from the smart phone as he looked at the screen and his thumb hovered over the delete button. He placed the smart phone on the night table when he looked at the ceiling while holding the teddy bear to his chest and sighed.

"Goodbye, Ellie," he said softly as he closed his eyes and two small tears rolled down his cheeks.


End file.
